Black Isle Studios reopens without involvement of original founders
Black Isle Studios is "back"--at least in name--and the company still wants to make great RPGs.
Black Isle Studios--at least in name--is back. The company, which closed in 2003 when publisher Interplay laid off the entire staff, quietly reopened its website with a brief statement: "Our goal has always been to make the world's best RPGs." The company certainly did that in its short history, creating such masterpieces as the original Fallout, Planescape: Torment, and Icewind Dale.
However, most of the original Black Isle team have moved onto other projects, and many key members of the team have been caught off-guard by today's announcement.
Black Isle founder Feargus Urquhart and Chris Avellone started Obsidian Entertainment in 2003. Avellone tweeted after the relaunch of the web site that he was not involved, nor was anyone he knew, and Urquhart told Shacknews "It was news to us over here at Obsidian." Brian Fargo, who founded Interplay and was instrumental in making Black Isle a division of that company, tweeted that he didn't have enough information to comment on the relaunch.
A quick WHOIS search shows that Interplay CEO Herve Caen is still listed as contact for the site, and that he has continued to renew the domain since it came into existence in late 1997. The Black Isle Twitter feed has not been used as of yet, and the Facebook page only offers a history of the studio's games.
We've reached out to Caen for details and we'll update the story as we get more information.
-
Shacknews
replyJohn Keefer posted a new article, Black Isle Studios reopens without involvement of original founders.
Black Isle Studios is "back"--at least in name--and the company still wants to make great RPGs.-
Maybe I am wrong but it seems to me the type of folks who would know the Black Isle name enough for it to be valuable to them are also the type to notice this kind of news about it only being Black Isle in name
-
It's a gamble interplay is willing to take. It's all they have now.
-
-
one of my favorite studios ever, but none of the original members? meh.
-
It's like reviving the 'Atari' name..it's nothing other than monetizing nostaglia.
-
Hrm.
One the one hand, I can get enthusiastic about devs trying to make some more RPGs in the Black Isle form (if that's what's actually going on here).
On the other, bringing back the name without bringing back any of the people seems like it can't really do anything but garner ill will from the start, which doesn't sound like a brilliant strategy.
Or maybe they're doing something like BG:EE with the BI games? That would be rather keen.-
I'm trying to follow up on that. I think Interplay still owns IWD and P:T IPs and if so, they could be looking at a BGEE style revival of the games or maybe even a Planescape 2.
-
-
-
Pretty much this, make kickass isometric Tactical RPGs and so long as they aren't horrible I will love you forever.
-
-
I'd probably buy Icewind Dale III if it retained the combat heavy style of Icewind Dale II and kept in the possibility to grind for a little extra xp when I feel like it, unlike Dragon Age. Matter of fact throw in a little more exploration or an open world and I'll pre order it. Just saying...
-
